Tales of Toast and Marshmallows
by Oparu
Summary: Cracktastic fluff where Maleficent deages herself to help Henry and Lily find Emma and Regina is stuck with a tiny baby dragon who is afraid of everything and really wants to snuggle. Then the dragon gets herself back and Regina realizes that she misses the little dragon as much as she missed the powerful one.
1. Chapter 1

Mal takes a very long breath, and her sigh is so slow and tentative that Regina wonders if she's ever going to stop.

"Fine," she says in the silence that follows. Her eyes announce that no, it is very much not fine, but she's willing to endure.

"It'll be temporary," Belle soothes. "It shouldn't be more than a lunar cycle."

Mal folds her hands in front of her on the table, sitting up straight and making eye contact solely with Regina. "Are you sure this is the best way?"

"This spell requires a sacrifice of age and wisdom," Belle says, opening the book and passing it over. "The more we sacrifice, the more accurate it'll be."

"So you need me because I'm several hundred years older than Granny, the former Dark One, and the pirate, combined: you're all just too concerned with protecting my vanity to say it." Mal glances at the book, but she knows what it says. Regina's certain she's heard of the spell before.

"We need to help Emma," Snow says and Regina waits for the snap, because she'd really let Snow have it if it were her daughter that had been taken, but Mal nods.

Mal turns her gaze from her book to her hands, suddenly small and helpless, even in her impeccably tailored suit. "All right."

"We'll keep you safe," Belle promises.

Mal's eyes flick up from her hands and she looks straight at Regina, then Snow. "I trust you will."

It's not even a threat. She trusts them, and a weight settles into Regina's stomach because she's not really sure if any of them know what they're getting into by agreeing to look after a very young dragon for a month. Henry was a fairly easy baby. He couldn't fly or breathe fire, and she's going to have to get the baby gates down from the attic.

The underworld is a huge place and they'll never figure out where to find Emma without a very powerful guiding spell, and this particular one requires a sacrifice. Other than the Blue Fairy, who none of them can see agreeing, Mal's the oldest being they have. Taking all of her knowledge and wisdom and pouring it into the spell for a month should make it work much faster for Henry, David and Lily. Snow's still breastfeeding little Neal, so she can't go (though she nearly wanted to take the little guy down to search for his sister). Regina should go, especially to protect Henry, but they only bargained for safe passage for three, and she can't take the place of Emma's father or her son. Lily's taken the last place because like her mother, she's immortal. If something bad happens, she must be allowed out. She can return, no matter what.

Piercing the veil between worlds might have its own consequences, Robin has an infant and might need her help and no one knows where Zelena has vanished too. She has to stay. Maleficent trusts her, and she'll have her hands full, certainly, with a baby dragon. They'll need to regress her almost all the way down to hatchling, to get as much as they can.

"But you'll be okay?" Lily asks, standing behind her mother. "You'll come back, you'll be you again?"

"It won't even hurt," Mal promises, standing up to take her daughter's hands. "It'll take my memories, so I won't know you, or anyone else, but you use them, you find Emma and bring her back."

"Of course," Lily replies, finding a brave little smile so much like her mother's. "Emma and I always find each other. We're connected, and you'll be there."

"In a way," Henry insists, standing beside Lily. He taps the globe in his hands. "We'll have part of you here, helping us find our way."

Mal shudders, and nods. "Well then, before I change my mind."

They draw a circle in the dirt, far out from town in a clearing. This spell needs moonlight, and fire. Henry holds the empty glass globe in front of him, like a born sorcerer. He might not have magic, but being the author is a kind of magic all its own. Regina begins to spin the spell, calling up the soft white energy of youth. It rises in streams from the cauldron, reaching towards Mal, almost like it intends to play with her. For her part, Mal doesn't flinch, even though Regina's fairly certain she would if asked to give up so much of herself, if only for a very short period of time.

A month can feel like forever. Will she even remember what happens to her?

All of Regina's questions are too late, because the light touches Maleficent, spiraling around her, and the essence of her age and experience begins to peel off, rushing towards Henry and the empty glass globe. It's little at first, a delicate silver-grey mist, almost green, like sage in the garden. Mal doesn't look any different, not yet, but Regina watches her face and slowly, she begins to change. Her eyes soften first, and her lips, and the traces of lines around her mouth disappear, erased by that hungry light. Her hair tumbles free of the knot on the back of her head and it cascades down her back, long and golden in a way Regina's never seen it. Her eyes grow brighter, more full of hope and fire. She shivers and her posture changes, her hands are younger, fuller, even her breasts look different in her suit, and then she's younger still, shorter, and her curves start to fade. The suit's too big for her, and she's a child wearing the clothing of someone she has not yet grown to be.

This is a Maleficent Regina's never known, one who could be Henry's classmate, whose smile is full of rebellion and wonder, and she shrinks, growing smaller before them. She's shorter than Henry, then barely taller than Roland, her hair so long that it nearly touches the ground, and there's a wildness in her eyes, something impish. That's her, Regina knows that part of her, but it's unfettered by experience. There's something so pure about the way she smiles, the way she laughs and reaches out the swirling light around her. It's then that she changes. The beautiful little girl in front of them shifts, slipping through smoke and darkness. Becoming larger, she rears up, but she's barely the size of a pony, and her wings are soft. She roars but like the giggling, it's a gentle, sweet sound. The dragon is also a child, growing smaller as the light continues to swirl. The dragon chases the lights with her mouth, shrinking down, her feet clumsy now as she twirls. The light brightens, taking the last that they dare and suddenly she's just a little thing, barely much bigger than a large house cat or little Neal. The dragon, Maleficent, nuzzles what she had been wearing and curls into it, making a nest with her little paws that totally lacks any real kind of coordination.

"Henry," Regina warns as the dragon shrinks even further. If they go too far, they'll have to wait for her to hatch and it'll be much more complicated.

The spell stops, the light retreats into the swirling globe in Henry's hand.

"We got it, Mom," he says. Belle hurries over to him and checks the globe, then the book.

"It seems like it'll be more than enough to guide them through," Belle agrees. "They'll have until the next full moon to find Emma, hopefully that'll be enough time. We could try again, but I'd rather not risk putting Maleficent through that."

They continue to talk, Snow and David chime in, but Regina walks forward towards the little bundle inside of Mal's clothing. The dragon notices her and hides, burying her little snout in Mal's shirt. She digs in further, but once her head is hidden she stops, because if she can't see Regina, she must not be there.

Regina kneels beside the rumpled clothing, then reaches out her hand. "Hello there," she whispers. "I know you're frightened, but you need to come with me so you'll be safe." She stretches out her fingers, barely stroking the scales of the tiny dragon and the little beast startles, digging in deeper as if beneath the coat she might be able to hide.

She can't risk losing her, not out here, so she scoops her up, coat and all, and Mal doesn't know where she is or what's happening and she squirms, struggling against Regina's arms. The tail helps her gain leverage and she nearly pulls herself free before Lily intervenes.

"Hi mom," Lily says, and there's enough of the dragon in her voice that Mal settles, if only for a moment. "I know you're scared. I'm scared."

Mal's scaly little head is barely bigger than Lily's hand, but she works her way free from the coat and sniffs at her. Rubbing her snout against Lily, she relaxes, letting Regina cradle her to her chest.

"I promise we'll be back, and you'll be back." Her voice catches a little in her throat, but she continues to stroke Mal's head, which keeps her calm, because she knows her kind. She doesn't know her own daughter, but she must be able to sense that Lily is like her. "It'll be okay. Regina's got you."

Shifting her weight, Regina cradles the little beast so she's wrapped in Mal's coat like a baby. Will they be able to get her into a car seat? Would they be better off with a crate of some sort?

"I love you," Lily whispers, bending to kiss her mother's much smaller head.

The little dragon snuffles, accepting the kiss before she curls up, resting her head against Regina's chest as if she's decided to trust her, for now.

David drives them back into town, and the car engine startles Mal awake and Regina again has to hush her, muttering nonsensical words she hasn't used since Henry was a baby. Mal would be the first one to make fun of her if she understood what Regina mutters to her, but as a hatchling, there's nothing she can do. She likes the sing-song reassurances that's she's okay, and with claws like hers, Regina has to keep her calm. She rocks little Mal in her arms in the back seat, half-listening to Snow and David talking as she wonders where she should put Mal to sleep.

Dragons like nests, but where does she had space. She put all of Henry's old things in the attic long ago, and Mal's too big for his basinet and she'd never tolerate being a crib. She could make her a space with pillows and blankets in the bed beside her. Perhaps she'll stay there.

* * *

Regina wakes in the middle of the night because a hatchling crying sounds remarkably similar to a baby and the part of her mind that woke her so often for Henry won't let her sleep through it. Mal isn't beside her, nor is she curled up anywhere on the bed. Dragging herself up, Regina flips on the lights and searches her room. With the doors closed to the hallway, the bathroom and the closet there are few places she could be. She's not in the corner, or under the nightstand, and finally, Regina lines on the floor and peers under the bed and she's there, in the far corner beneath the bed, curled into a ball with her head on her tail. Her eyes glow in the darkness and she cries, like one of the kittens in the barn, so very long ago.

Sighing, Regina settles down on the floor and whispers about nothing important to a baby dragon that can't understand her, or why she's alone and cold and expected to sleep somewhere as dark and strange as Regina's bedroom. She pulls some of the blankets off the bed and gets as comfortable as she can on the carpet because Mal's not going to move.

Sometime before morning, Regina wakes again, stiff from the floor, and Mal's curled against her stomach: a little ball of warm scales in the blanket. She strokes her, just once, terrified that she'll wake, but she sighs, snuggles closer, and they both fall back asleep.

She makes Henry breakfast before David picks him up, and hugs him close because he too won't be back until the next full moon and he's going to save Emma, as he should (as Regina should) but she can't. Not this time.

Mal was asleep in the bed when she left, but she's under it after Henry leaves and Regina spends most of the morning coaxing her out with cold bacon and little pieces of egg. She should have asked what a hatchling eats, but apparently they eat everything, because once she's over her fear, Mal attacks anything Regina puts in front of her. She grabs her, hoping to save her bedroom from smelling eternally of bacon, but Mal squirms and writhes and she does have teeth and claws. She quiets if Regina half-sings to her, and she doesn't sing in front of anyone.

Even as a baby, Mal was contrary, and she adores it, even if it is off key and Regina can only remember half of the words. She fences off part of the kitchen with baby gates and sits on the floor with Mal as they experiment with what she will eat (bacon, toast, eggs) and what she won't eat (tomatoes, apple, banana). She enjoys pouncing on little pieces of toast, growling as she half-eats, half-shreds them. Regina should stop her, but she's so enthusiastic when she gets one, and the vacuum works.

She takes her out into the safely fenced back yard, and it seems to big at first, because Mal could hide under any of the trees and Regina will have to dig her out, but she barely wanders more than five feet from Regina in the grass before she hurries back, her wings glistening in the sun. They don't seem to work, her soft, leathery little wings. Sometimes Mal twitches one of the other but she doesn't seem to realize that she's doing it, and like her feet, all of her movements are clumsy. She crawls through the grass on her round little belly and sits in the sun, pleased and brave until she can't find Regina and then she panics, searching wildly and falling over her feet on the way back.

Finally, she curls beside Regina's thigh, forming a little ball in the sunny grass. Stroking her warm scales, Regina smiles as Mal's eyes squint shut. "What am I going to do with you in the office tomorrow?"


	2. Chapter 2

"What does she eat?"

"Can we pet her?"

"Does she fly?"

Regina rubs the back of Mal's scaly neck where she hides her head in Regina's hair. She's been getting so good at walking on a leash, without scrambling up Regina's body to hide behind her hair, but they passed the school while kindergarten was letting out, and a horde of small children surrounds them.  
"You may pet her if you're gentle. She's very shy."

"Mayor Mills, how did you get a dragon?"

"Can I have a dragon?"

"She's visiting me for awhile," Regina explains, kneeling down so the children can stroke Mal's tail. Mal skitters, trying to burrow more into her hair, but she mutters soft things and Mal settles. "Dragons are very rare, perhaps you should ask your parents for a more common pet."

"She's so warm."

"Dragons are made of fire," Regina explains. She stands back up once each child has had a chance to touch Mal's little tail. "So that makes her warm, and she loves fire.. Would you like to see?"

They bounce with excitement, and Regina makes them all promise to wait quietly on the sidewalk while she takes a few steps back. She has complete control over her fireball, of course, but she doesn't want them to get the idea that fire is to be trifled with. She calls the fire into her right hand and Mal immediately emerges from her hair. Her inquisitive eyes follow the fire from Regina's shoulder and she scrambles down her arm. Regina's had to wear her thickest shirts, but the weather's turning and Mal's been somewhat careful with her claws. She wraps her tiny paws around Regina's elbow and watches the fire like it's the most beautiful thing in existence.

"You can do it," Regina murmurs. "You're safe."

Mal spits a tiny jet of flame in response to the fireball and her audience giggles and claps. For once, she doesn't hide immediately but watches them from a position of safety on top of Regina's shoulders. She wishes the children a safe trip home and continues onward to Granny's.

The adults are less enamored with Mal's position on her shoulders, but only mildly less. All the smiles remind her of when Henry was a baby and everyone had to comment on how cute he was. (of course, he was). Like Henry, Mal doesn't understand the attention, and crawls into Regina's lap, under the table, when she sits down. She strokes her lazily with her left hand, and waits for Granny.

Granny sets down the toast first, along with Regina's coffee.

Mal smells it and her little head peers around the edge of the table.

"There you are," Granny coos. "How's the rest of her doing?"

"Henry wrote that he, Emma and David are through most of the labyrinth. Apparently Maleficent has regained more of her personality as time passes. She's a more opinionated guide now, but he seemed positive." Regina wraps one hand around her coffee. Henry's letters drift upwards into her fireplace at regular intervals, but it's not the same as seeing him. She misses him intensely, Emma too, and she knows Snow's sometimes just at her wits end taking care of Neal without David. She can't say she misses Mal, because she's here, but she still misses her.

Regina sets the plate of toast that Mal's so interested in on the booth beside her and Mal scampers to it, pouncing happily. She'll get crumbs everywhere, again, but it was easy enough to clean up last time, and Granny tolerated the mess.

Snow arrives late and slides into the booth, Neal in her arms. He reaches for the flatware on the table and starts banging a spoon.

"Sorry."

"It's Saturday," Regina reminds her. "I've no schedule to keep to."

"And she has her toast already?" Snow asks, peering over the table.

Regina lifts one of the pieces of dark toast and holds it up. Mal stares at it, then leaps, pawing at it until she gets it. Little Neal's eyes go wide and he stares, open mouthed. He'd love to stick Mal's tail into his drooling little mouth, like everything else, but Mal's afraid of him. (like everything else).

It's an odd little lunch, Snow passes Neal over when Regina's finished her food because she's barely made a dent in her sandwich. Little Neal settles into her lap and Mal gives her the dirtiest of looks and sulks back to the corner of the seat. He waves a stuffed toy in her direction and the glare deepens.

"Be nice," Regina murmurs, shifting Neal to her other side. Mal continued to glare and advanced, slowly. He wave his teething toy at her and burbles. She tilts her head, studying him as if he too were toast, then burbles back.  
He squeals, delighted that she's made a noise, and she retreats, because he's loud. Yet he flings his arms around and his toy rattles and then she's back, staring at him because as much as she fears noise and motion, she can't look away.

"Regina?" Snow interrupts her staring.

"Mal wants to play with him."

"She won't hurt him, right?"

Regina nods, keeping her eyes on the little dragon. "She's only hurt me once."

"Oh?"

"She nibbled before she realized that I don't have scales to protect me."

Mal twitches her tail and Neal reaches for it, forgetting all about his chew toy. She's thinner than him, longer, but probably lighter. They could even be close to the same age because hatchlings age slowly. She flicks it out of his way and he slips from Regina's lap, trying to crawl towards her. She shifts him back across her lap but Mal scrambles after him, then they sit on her legs together, staring at each other in wonder. Mal's bright green eyes absorb him and he reaches for her with clumsy hands.

"Gentle," Regina reminds them both. "Be gentle."

Mal rubs her head against him, crooning in her chest. It's almost a purr, but it's her happy noise and little Neal adores it, he hugs her tight and then they're a ball of limbs in her lap but they're happy. Neal giggles and Mal's little rumbling of joy continues and Snow stares at her, and them, then back at Regina.

"Is she always like this?"

"This is her happy noise," Regina explains, shifting them around so no one hits their head on the table. "At least, I think so. There's a chirp too, but that might be more of a question."

"I didn't think-" Snow pauses, resting her fork. "I guess I didn't think she'd be so human." She started to eat again, then stopped, studying Regina. "Does she make you miss Henry, when he was that small?"

"Henry never set the curtains in my office on fire."

Mal bats at Henry's toy, making it rattle. Neal bats it in her general direction and they continue to stare on Regina's lap. Two warm weights, both equally likely to ruin what she's wearing.

"Well, you're good at putting things out."

"Doesn't mean I wanted to demonstrate that."

Neal pulls her tail a little too hard and Mal squeaks and retreats.  
Snow gets up, circling the booth and leans down next to Mal. "Did he scare you?"

Mal stares at her, ready to flee, but without retreat. She studies Snow, sniffing her hand. She has no memory of what happened before, no knowledge of their history. Rubbing her hand once against Snow's wrist, Mal retreats back, climbing Regina's shoulder to sit in her hair.

Handing back Neal, Regina shakes her head at her companion. "Same time tomorrow?"

"Yes, please."

Regina pays and Mal made less of a mess with her toast then she did last time. She could head home but there's work she could do, even though it's a Saturday, so she takes Mal to the office. The little dragon refuses to relinquish Regina's shoulders, even when she sits down and starts to work. Staring at the papers and trying to keep her shoulders level aches, and eventually it bores Mal before Regina has to remove her.

Mal climbs down to the desk, nearly tumbling. Regina places her arm between Mal and the paperwork and lets her roam the desk. Her feet make little skittering sounds on the hard wood. Mal attacks a paperweight, and the box that people put papers in (Regina's started putting them in her desk, so Mal can't reach them.). She circles the desk, learning the layout before she returns, laying her head on Regina's arm. She sits there silently for a moment, then that little crooning noise starts in her chest and Regina looks up.

"Yes?"

Mal chirps in response, lifting her head. Regina strokes her little eye ridges and the little nubs that will be her horns.

"I know this is boring."

Mal purrs, and she'd never admit it is a purr, but Regina's known cats and she knows what that sound is.

"When I'm done we can go home and you can play in the fireplace while we wait for Henry's letter."

Nudging her, Mal rubs her head against Regina's upper arm. Maybe she senses the change in Regina's voice.

"I know that look," she says, even though there's no way Mal understands her. Dragons don't learn to speak for several years. "I miss him, and you, as strange as that is. I know you're here, but you're not you."

Mal climbs her arm, rubbing her head against Regina's chin, and purring more loudly.

Scooping Mal into her arms, she sits back, rocking her. "I know. You'll be back. You won't remember any of this and you'll get annoyed when I try to rub your head." Mal chirps and nips at Regina's fingers. She holds two of them in her little jaws, without gnawing, and Regina rubs her chin with her free hand. "But you are cute."


	3. Chapter 3

Mal doesn't understand Henry's comic book movies, but she likes it when Regina sits still on the sofa, so she can curl up in her lap. Peter Quill and his odd group of friends saves the galaxy and she thinks Mal's still asleep, but she raises her head, rubbing it against Regina's arm.

"Do you miss him too?" she asks, stroking her eye ridges. "You probably miss being yourself, and Lily, and wearing clothes more than anything."

Mal purrs, rumbling happily in her throat as Regina continues to rub her head.

"Yeah? Do you miss your closet, your ties?"

She can't understand, but talking to her makes the evening less lonely. The credits roll without Regina's attention, or Mal's. Gathering her up, Regina guides her to her shoulders and leaves the sofa. She shuts off the television and heads to the kitchen, Mal wrapped around her neck.

Pouring herself a glass of wine, Regina grabs a marshmallow from the bag and passes it up. Mal grabs it, munching it happily in her ear. The smacking sounds of her little jaws continue while she finishes her wine and sets the glass in the dishwasher.

Mal licks marshmallow off of her neck, and she squirms, laughing. Mal nearly tumbles off, digging her claws into her shirt.

"Hey–"

Mal chirps, some kind of apology, then licks her neck again.

"You are trouble."

Tumbling down into her arms, Mal lies there, belly up like a baby, her bright blue eyes full of mirth and unbridled affection.

"Don't look at me like that. You still got marshmallow on my neck." She strokes the soft scales of Mal's chin and then sets her on the bed. "Stay."

Of course, she follows Regina into the bathroom, perching on the edge of the tub while Regina washes her face, getting the last of the marshmallow off her neck, then brushes her teeth.

Mal winds around her ankles while she brushes her hair, and scurries to the bed, hopping up to sit on the pillow, waiting for her to change into her pajamas. She spend all night on the other pillow, watching Regina sleep. Maybe she'll slip under the blankets again, curling up near Regina's stomach because she loves the warmth.

Regina climbs into bed, shutting off the light. Mal blows a little jet of flame, toying with the darkness before she settles.

"The moon will come out. It won't be a dark night," she promises her. Mal doesn't understand, and for a moment, she wishes her eyes could have her intelligence back. She needs her, and Henry, and all that's missing from her life.

Sighing, she draws the little dragon up to her chest, holding her chest. "You'll be home soon. You and Henry, and you'll never believe how much I've missed you."

Mal licks her finger, then burbles something soft and sweet.

"Maybe you've missed me too, wherever you are."


	4. Chapter 4

Mal curls around her neck, warm and familiar now after the month they've spent together. Her tail dangles down Regina's shoulder and she toys with it, holding Mal's robe in her arms. It's so strange to think that she'll be back, here,human, again. She's been Regina's constant companion, a tiny creature, rather like Henry as a baby (with a fire-breathing habit and an addiction to marshmallows), and she's just become so accustomed to waking with her curled in a ball in the bed, or listening to her purr to herself late at night.

She loves this tiny creature, adores her strange hoarding of anything small and silver, or the way she gets along best with children. Regina will be relieved not to need to rescue her spoons from behind the sofa, or clean burnt marshmallow from the carpet, but she'll miss this version of Mal and how this little being trusts so easy and chirps at everything.

Henry and Lily returned with Emma this afternoon and after the celebrating died down and the party was organized, Regina found herself staring at her son, who she missed so terribly, and the glowing orb in his hands, knowing she'd lose the warm, scaly creature on her lap.

"Was she much like her?" Regina asks him while they set up the spell.

Henry and Lily both shrug. "We don't know her that well, I mean, as she was, this isn't really year." He thinks for a moment. "She's funny. Has a weird sense of humor. Told stories at night about the Enchanted Forest, how she built her castle, how she met you."

Lily and Henry both grin about that. Lily runs her hand over the smooth glass globe, gently, almost reverently. "It was nice to get to know her, even if it wasn't her."

"It was," Henry says, looking over the book in front of him once more. "At least, in a way. More intellect and memory, less emotion, that part stays in the other form."

"That's you," Regina murmurs, rubbing Mal's little chin. She chirps and nuzzles Regina's face. "You'll be whole again soon, I promise."

"We wouldn't have gotten through without her," Lily says, arms folded over her chest. "Probably would have gotten stuck down there, just lost in the mists."

She and Henry share a shudder and she should never have let them go, but they're back.

And Mal was with them.

Henry looks over the book one last time. "All right."

Regina sets little Mal down on the ground, smiling at her. "It won't hurt."

Mal tilts her head, eyes on Regina's, but stays there. Content because she can still see her. Regina takes a breath, and she almost can't watch. Magic reaches out, white and warm, almost loving as it embraces that tiny dragon. Age comes first, and the sweet little being grows, first the size of a dog, of a pony, then a horse and for a moment she fears that she'll just continue to grow as a dragon, but then she shifts.

Maleficent is barely more than a child at first, standing naked in front of them. Henry blushes, immediately looking away. Regina starts forward, wanting to wrap her in the robe but the magic hums, keeping her back. The girl grows taller, thinner, and her long blonde hair cascades over her, covering her barely-there breasts. They grow, and her hips change, and her thighs and she's unmistakably adult, but not the woman Regina knows.

Her eyes are too wild, too bright, and she laughs as the magic surrounds her, aging her, filling her with memory and knowledge, thoughts and hopes and dreams.

She looks at them, and her eyes find Regina's and just stay, blue, bright and encompassing, as if she's devouring Regina whole. Her face grows into the woman Regina knows, with the tiny lines around her eyes, around her mouth, and slowly, the magic starts to fade. It settles, leaving her bare skin gleaming with power.

Maleficent stands before them, naked and full of power while her lover, her daughter, and the boy she gave up so much for (though he stares at the ground as if looking up will lead to his demise) surround her.

Regina hurries forward, wrapping the silver silk robe around her shoulders. Mal studies her, watching her eyes, smiling.

"You're so much smaller," Mal says, reaching for Regina's chin.

"You can't really sit on my shoulders now,' Regina says, keeping her eyes on Mal's. This is her, she's back, vivid and splendid again, but she can sense the child, the baby who she held so close.

Mal studies her, as if trying to remember, and then she laughs. "I loved that."

"You did."

"It's okay Henry," Lily says. "She's back."

Regina has to give her up, let her talk to her daughter, let Henry thank her for all that she's done. So she kisses her cheek and takes a step back. She has to let go.

Maleficent and Lily embrace, and there's truth in it, hope, and a kind of peace they didn't have before they left. Perhaps it was good that Lily met her mother's mind separate from her heart, that she got to know her without the emotions in the way, because now, those emotions make more sense. The blind feelings that remained in the baby are safer now, less threatening.

Henry hugs her too, still blushing. "Thank you for saving my mom."

"Of course," Maleficent says, touching his cheek. She waves her hand and her robe disappears, replaced with a black wool waistcoat and trousers. Her hair's still down, loose, but there's something powerful in her, regal and commanding that Regina hasn't seen for a month, maybe more.

* * *

Regina doesn't see her alone until late that night. Henry, Emma and Lily have celebrated and laughed and told stories about the strange underworld Emma was trapped in. Mal features in many of these stories, the guiding voice, both sarcastic and soft. She kept them safe in the darkness, reminded them to keep fighting, gave of herself in a most unselfish way.

And yet Regina misses the warm weight in her lap, the little face trying to get her attention. She can't stop staring at Maleficent the woman, because that creature is in there, her constant companion, and she misses that being. Snow even hands her little Neal, letting his baby weight soften the missing weight of the dragon.

She takes her coat, ready to head him and let Henry find his way back when he's done talking to his family. He survived the Underworld, and he can find his way back to the house. She waves at him and he walks over, hugging her tight.

"I love you," he says, beaming at her. "Thanks for trusting me."

"Always," she promises, because part of loving him is knowing how powerful he is. "I love you."

He squeezes her shoulder, then returns to his grandparents and his other mother. Emma smiles at her with such gratitude that Regina has to admit this is worth it. All of this is worth it, but she misses the little dragon. She even whistles for her, low and soft and on the other side of the diner Mal looks up.

They share a glance, and Mal smiles so gently that she has to know, she has to remember. Regina shivers, because that naked affection isn't something she's ready to accept from a human.

Wrapping her scarf around her neck, Regina steps out into the darkness without a little dragon on her shoulders. She walks into her house without that little creature bounding ahead of her on the wood floors. Walking into the kitchen, she glances at the bag of marshmallows on the counter and sighs. Grabbing them, Regina starts to put them away but a hand touches hers.

"Not yet, I have to admit that I like them, whatever they are." Mal's fingers close around hers and Regina turns, meeting bright blue eyes that are as open as the baby's. Her heart races, aching in her chest because she needed this, the warmth of knowing she's loved, needed.

"Marshmallows." Regina hands her one, letting her turn it over in her fingers.

"I meant to teleport home and found myself in your living room."

Regina smirks. "Hopefully not under the sofa."

"No," Mal replies, her smile soft and rueful. "Though I remember what it looks like from that angle particularly well."

Regina throws a lick of flame onto the marshmallow and it burns in Mal's fingers, turning black before she blows it out. She eats it much more delicately than the tiny version of her ever did and her eyes go wide with the rush of sugar.

Mall mutters something intelligible and then she kisses her, taking Regina completely off guard and there's marshmallow everywhere and their lips and sticky with it. The kiss continues, spreading more mess over both of their faces and Mal's free hand strokes Regina's neck and somewhere in her throat Mal purrs.

It's deeper, hungrier and sexy in a way the tiny dragon never was, but it's still her, and so much her that Regina shivers.

"If you wanted me in your life, all you had to do was ask," Mal whispers. She kisses her cheek, leaving a sticky mark behind and Regina kisses her in retaliation, burying her fingers in Mal's hair.

"I didn't know," Regina murmurs. "I didn't know I–"

Mal nuzzles her cheek and Regina gasps because the heat is the same, the gesture has the same purity of emotion, but there's sex in Mal's eyes and against her mouth when they kiss again, and maybe somehow, now that she's back, they can have both affection and passion.

"Come on," Mal teases. "I'm used to sleeping in your bed."

"You don't remember that."

"I do," Maleficent replies, tilting her head. "I remember being curled up on your chest, listening to your heartbeat and being absolutely content."

Regina's heart continues to race ahead, wanting more than contentment. "Really?"

"You were my world, for a month," Mal says, leaning in. "How can I come back and let you go?"


End file.
